The Veggie Mom Place Pumpkin Pie

If you have been reading the blog and you had better have been reading the blog, you know that all the Veggie Boys wanted to do when their dad was out of town was to go to the Pie Place.  Not wanting to spend a fortune on pie and pancakes(the pie place is a pie/other food place) their smart momma, made both pie and pancakes while the Veggie Dad was out of town.  Luckily I had all the ingredients on hand for a pumpkin pie and thus I made a pumpkin pie. 

Normally, I would do a basic pumpkin pie recipe with pumpkin puree, evaporated milk., spices and sugar.  But this time I decided to skip the evaporated milk and go with a cream/milk mixture.  Of course it had been made clear to me that whipped cream MUST be served with pumpkin pie, so since I'm gonna buy cream anyway I might was well use it in the pie, right?  A game time decision was using dark brown sugar and in all honesty, while I liked the flavor I did not like that the dark brown sugar made the pie more brown then pumpkin-y orange. 

Pumpkin Pie

1 single pie crust pre-baked, warm and fitted into a 9-inch pie plate

1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2/3 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup whole milk

4 large eggs

Pre-bake the crust according to the instruction in the Single Pie Crust recipe through the baking (of course), but be sure that pie crust is warm when you put the pie filling into the crust. 

For baking the filled pie, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Process the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and cloves together in the food processor until well combined, about 1 minute. 

Transfer the pumpkin mixture into a sauce pan and simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick and shiny, about 5 minutes. 

Slowly, whisk the cream and milk into the pumpkin mixture and return to a simmer briefly and then remove from the heat.

Process the eggs in a food processor until it's all yellow and uniform in color, about 5 seconds

With the machine still running, slowly and carefully add (like maybe don't try and take a photo of what you are doing it while you are doing it) the pumpkin mixture to the eggs through the feed tube.  Process until well combined, about 30 seconds. 

Immediately pour the warm filling into the warm pie crust (sorry I failed to get a photos of this step).  Bake the pie until the filling is puffed up, lightly cracked around the edges and the center giggles slightly when shaken, about 25 minutes.  If you feel the edges of the crust needs it place a crust guard or some aluminum foil around the edges towards the end of the baking time. 

Let the pie cool for 2 hours. Be sure to take a photo of the pie before you leave it alone with your pie-crazed children, because one of them will try and eat the cooling pie with a large spatula when you back is turned.! Serve warm and covered with whipped topping to hide any and all of it's battle scars.